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care for fiddler crabs and tank set up?

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Alright, I've had fiddler crabs before, and sadly the only outlet to buy them at in person is walmart, at least for me. I'm not particularly happy buying from them, any fish I've ever bought from them has died and I've been an aquarium hobbyist for years. Anywho, I am going to purchase a couple of their fiddler crabs, but I want to make for sure this time I'm doing everything right (however they may still die)

I'm setting up a 10 gallon tank. I'm going to use a base layer of natural pebble gravel to line the bottom, also I want to make it slope up an inch or so high on the side where dry land will be. On top of that I'm using natural, chemical free sand sloping it so that habitat is evenly halved, well as close as I can get it. I want the sand to go as high as 3 inches, maybe four, including the inch layer of pebbles below, while my water will not be as high.

I do realize I need to rinse the sand and gravel with de-chlorinated water to remove dust or anything else.

So far I have a 5 in 1 submersible filter, hydrometer, heater with thermostat, submersible air pump for oxygenating the water better. I keep getting researching but still haven't yet figured out if I need to use aquarium salt or marine salt. I figured since they are brackish water creatures I would use marine salt.

This is the same set up I used before, except that I used an 80 gallon tank with a wave maker set on a very low setting so that there was a mild current, so mild it allowed the crabs safe entry in the water and out. I used the same filter system I listed above because at most there was only ten gallons of water in the tank, and the land was evenly split with the water, going about two and a half feet high with dry land. I had 9 fiddler crabs in there and they lived for 5 years. I'm positive they died from old age because they become slower in movement and even their little mating dances became less and less. I do know they did mate but I realized it was near impossible to see their eggs through. Mine always burrowed, the males were extremely territorial when it came to their own burrows except with females.

I still have my 80 gallon but I have java moss growing along the entire back wall of it and its filled with water but no fish, I gave that tank to my husband who's entirely new to keeping fish but learning lol. So I can't use that tank anymore.

He's wanting to go smaller at first and get some fish. So I figured we'd switch tanks and he can start off small like he wants, then when he's ready to move up we'd switch around or hopefully I would have found a tank close to the 80 for my crabs, or him a larger tank so I can keep the one their going to be in.

I know I bounced around with topics but my main concern is if a couple of crabs in a 10 gallon tank like I've described will survive? I've only had success keeping them alive by giving a large inclosure with a wave maker and deep sand so they could burrow properly.

Fiddlers

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I do not have fiddlers, but I have red clawed crabs and have done tons of research on both. They need to live in brackish water. You need to use marine salt. Do you have a hydrometer? It needs to be 1.004. You will not need much salt.

I have 3 RCC's in a 10 gallon semi-aquatic tank, and they are all doing well. They love to eat frozen bloodworms. They sell crab and lobster pellets, but mine don't seem to want to eat those anymore. You can also try apples, green beans, peas.

I would like to see pictures of your set up. I would pain me to buy the fiddlers and wal mart, but I might have to go look.

I'll give you my e-mail if you want to keep in contact. I do not know anybody who keeps crabs as pets.

I have two filder crabs in my 20 gallon freshwater and they are both doing fine. For air they just climb up some of the cables to the air pump and filter intake tube. The tank is fully inclosed so they are not able to get out of the tank.

I have owned many fiddler crabs from stores and they are all over the beach outside my house (florida) so I could not resist at times, and what I learned from owning them is- they did okay in freshwater but seemed much happier in brackish water, also I have successfully raised them in a 10 gallon myself, getting a few males and a single female is entertaining as they will compete for her attention. But the only negative thing that ever happened was that they ALWAYS found a way to escape. Like RainbowDragon said, the tank must be completely covered but they also need a place to get themselves out of the water and breathe, and they will do that about 75% of the time. In the 10 gallon that is more of a challenge, I had structures inside the tank with air in the top and they would crawl up to the top to get air, but that wasnt enough and they would crawl inside my filter, I would find them on top of the tank, and sadly my cat found some of them before I could, so I gave up trying to keep them, they are extremely sneaky buggers and will escape your tank, so that should be your main concern.